Virtually Priceless

It's probably not a surprise but once the Dallas Cowboys jumped on the STRIVR virtual reality bandwagon news outlets hurried onto the story. Here are a couple of still shots taken from a FoxBusiness report that are almost as good publicity for Dartmouth as they are for STRIVR.

STRIVR's Derek Belch speaks with Fox Business from the Dartmouth campus.

Dartmouth is is some fast company.

Watch the full FoxBusiness report HERE.

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Following in the footsteps of FoxBusiness is USA Today, which has a lengthy story HERE.

Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens did a little trial filming in the weight room and has spoken about the Big Green using the technology in recruiting. In the USA Today piece Arkansas coach Bret Bielema offers his own take on using virtual reality not just on the field but off it. From the USA Today story:

In the not so distant future, assistant coaches could take laptops and headsets with them on the road. Without setting foot on the Arkansas campus, a recruit could be standing, at least virtually, in the locker room with potential teammates, listening to a pregame pep talk. Then he's in the tunnel as the players storm onto the field, or on the sidelines. Then he's in a team meeting — "second row, third chair to the right," Bielema says — listening to Bielema speak.

Bielema had Belch shoot video inside each of the Hogs' meeting rooms during position meetings.

"If we've got an offensive lineman (recruit) visiting in the middle of June, he can go into a meeting room (virtually) and feel like he's sitting in that room," Bielema says. "Just some crazy recruiting tools."

Green Alert Take: Until you put on the headset and try it, you really can't get a grasp about just how real the virtual reality system is. I can tell you when I had the headset on, STRIVR's Derek Belch said to turn around and look behind me. Standing there was a tailback. I was shocked to find him there and could just about feel him breathing down my back. Having tried the system it's easy for me to imagine a high schooler (and his parents) 3,000 miles away suddenly standing in the middle of the Dartmouth Green on a beautiful fall day experiencing the beauty of the campus on all sides without leaving a living room.